Transcribed from the 1893 Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier edition byDavid Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
‘The express image’ [Gr. ‘the character’].—Heb.1. 3.
The word ‘character’ occurs only once in the New Testament,and that is in the passage in the prologue of the Epistle to the Hebrews,where the original word is translated ‘express image’ inour version. Our Lord is the Express Image of the Invisible Father. No man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, who isin the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. The Father hathsealed His divine image upon His Son, so that he that hath seen theSon hath seen the Father. The Son is thus the Father’s characterstamped upon and set forth in human nature. The Word was madeflesh. This is the highest and best use to which our so expressiveword ‘character’ has ever been put, and the use to whichit is put when we speak of Bunyan’s Characters partakes of thesame high sense and usage. For it is of the outstanding good orevil in a man that we think when we speak of his character. Itis really either of his likeness or unlikeness to Jesus Christ we speak,and then, through Him, his likeness or unlikeness to God Himself. And thus it is that the adjective ‘moral’ usually accompaniesour word ‘character’—moral or immoral. A man’scharacter does not have its seat or source in his body; character isnot a physical thing: not even in his mind; it is not an intellectualthing. Character comes up out of the will and out of the heart. There are more good minds, as we say, in the world than there are goodhearts. There are more clever people than good people; character,—high,spotless, saintly character,—is a far rarer thing in this worldthan talent or even genius. Character is an infinitely betterthing than either of these, and it is of corresponding rarity. And yet so true is it that the world loves its own, that all men worshiptalent, and even bodily strength and bodily beauty, while only one hereand one there either understands or values or pursues moral character,though it is the strength and the beauty and the sweetness of the soul.
We naturally turn to Bishop Butler when we think of moral character. Butler is an author who has drawn no characters of his own. Butler’sgenius was not creative like Shakespeare’s or Bunyan’s. Butler had not that splendid imagination which those two masters incharacter-painting possessed, but he had very great gifts of his own,and he has done us very great service by means of his gifts. BishopButler has helped many men in the intelligent formation of their character,and what higher praise could be given to any author? Butler willlie on our table all winter beside Bunyan; the bishop beside the tinker,the philosopher beside the poet, the moralist beside the evangelicalminister.
In seeking a solid bottom for our subject, then, we naturally turnto Butler. Bunyan will people the house for us once it is built,but Butler lays bare for us the naked rock on which men like Bunyanbuild and beautify and people the dwelling-place of God and man. What exactly is this thing, character, we hear so much about? we askthe sagacious bishop. And how shall we understand our own characterso as to form it well till it stands firm and endures? ‘Character,’answers Butler, in his bald, dry, deep way, ‘by character is meantthat temper, taste, disposition, whole frame of mind from whence weact in one way rather than another . . . those principles from whicha man acts, when they become fixed and habitual in him we call his character. . . And consequently there is a far greater variety in men’sch